In message , Sacha
writes
On 2009-05-11 12:30:47 +0100, Stewart Robert Hinsley
said:

In message , Sacha
writes
On 2009-05-11 10:03:49 +0100, gogo said:

Sacha wrote:
On 2009-05-10 11:20:08 +0100, "BOFH" said:

"Alan" wrote in message
...
It make s a refreshing change from assuming that everyone still
communicates in Latin.
Sorry, I disagree with that point. The latin bits fine by me
It's essential if you want to be sure you're getting the plant
think you want. After that you can call it 'Fred' if you want to.
Also, if English is not your mother tongue, it makes it easier to
make the connection between the English and French (in my case)
common names.
That's exactly it. We had some French customers who came in a few
years ago asking for 'sauges'. Nobody on the staff speaks French so
I was asked to help. It took me seconds to go from sauges to sages
to Salvias and they were very relieved! But if they'd said Salvias,
the member of the Nursery staff serving them would have got it
straight away. This is a very minor example, obviously but it does
show that if you ask for Mimosa in some parts of USA you'll either
get a mixture of champagne and orange juice or an Albizia
julibrissin. What you won't get is 'English' mimosa, which is
Acacia and usually A. dealbata. The other incident of that sort was
again with some English customers who'd been on holiday in France
and were asking our staff for what they'd been told were 'ortensia'.
I don't know how it was they hadn't recognised Hydrangeas in France
but until my 'French memory' kicked in, nobody had associated hortensia with Hydrangea

Except that Hortensia is an English name for some Hydrangeas,
applying to mophead varieties of Hydrangea macrophylla. (If I recall
correctly, mopheads are varieties in which the inflorescence is
composed solely of sterile flowers.)

Very true but I can honestly say that I've never known any other
customer ask for a hortensia and nor had anyone else.
A clicheed example of a "problem" with vernacular names is that an
American ordering Rose-of-Sharon from Britain is liable to be
disappointed. (But, with American phytosanitary laws Americans aren't
likely to be ordering plants from Britain.)

What would they expect to get as Rose of Sharon?

Hibiscus syriacus.

We've ordered plants from America and the phytosanitary laws apply in
this direction, too. Expensive business.

My understanding is that the American phytosanitary laws are more
draconian that the European ones (but not as draconian as the Australian
ones).
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley